Austen is the first female writer to feature on a British banknote, replacing a paper 10 pound note which featured a portrait of naturalist Charles Darwin.

The new 'tenner' is the first British banknote with a tactile feature involving a series of raised dots in the top left-hand corner to help blind and partially sighted users.

The move coincides with the 200th anniversary of the author's death and comes more than a year after Australia circulated its new $5 bank notes, whose new features also enabled vision-impaired people to read the currency.

How will the process work?

Just over 1 billion of the notes have been printed and the general public should start seeing them over coming days and weeks.

Official works of Jane Austen:

Sense and Sensibility — 1811

Pride and Prejudice — 1813

Mansfield Park — 1814

Emma — 1815

Persuasion — 1817

Northanger Abbey — 1817

The Bank of England said it would gradually start withdrawing the roughly 800 million 10 pound paper notes in circulation as they are banked by retailers and businesses.

The old notes will still be accepted in the shops until Spring 2018 with the exact date of withdrawal to be published three months in advance.

Mr Carney said banknotes serve as "repositories of the country's collective memory, promoting awareness of the United Kingdom's glorious history and highlighting the contributions of its greatest citizens."